As consumers purchase more individual electronic components for their home, where each component is equipped with a remote control, the several remote controls become difficult to keep track of and can become misplaced. The remote controls can become lost in the seat cushions of a couch, or a user may inadvertently walk out of the room, leaving the remote control behind in another room. In addition to the typical plurality of components for a typical media room, a trend in the home entertainment industry is that home entertainment components, such as televisions, and computers are merging. One currently available system is a product available from Gateway 2000 called the Destination product.
Gateway 2000's Destination product is a multipurpose computer system provided with circuitry to control consumer electronics, such as a large monitor or television for group interaction and of text, graphics and video in a home entertainment environment. The merged home entertainment and computer products, such as Gateway 2000's Destination product are being designed for use in a home entertainment environment since people are using these systems in living rooms rather than home offices. In other words, combining a computer with a home entertainment system has had the effect of moving the home personal computer of the desk in home office and into the main living space of the user's home. This also means that the peripheral devices normally used with the computers, such as a mouse, will also be used in the main living space of the user's home. Similar to the remote controls discussed above, the smaller peripheral devices, especially those devices which operate wireless, are susceptible to becoming misplaced away from the system. Accordingly, what is needed is a better way of tracking the location of a remote control device, such as a cordless mouse.